Vaccination drive halts cattle plague in Kenya and United Republic of Tanzania

In November 1996, rinderpest, a highly contagious and often fatal livestock disease, was diagnosed among buffalo and eland in Nairobi National Park, Kenya. Afraid that the disease would spread across the border, the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania appealed for international assistance to prevent the country from reinfection after it had been free of the disease for 14 years.

In February 1997, at the request of Kenya, FAO, through the Emergency Prevention System for Transboundary Animal and Plant Pests and Diseases (EMPRES), set up a meeting of veterinary officials and wildlife experts from the two countries to assess the risk of the rinderpest spreading. The risk was judged to be high, aggravated by a drought which caused herders to drive their livestock across borders in search of grazing.

Intensive surveillance and vaccination were undertaken by the veterinary and wildlife teams of the two countries, in close collaboration with specialists from the Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources of the Organization for African Unity. One million emergency vaccinations were delivered in a three-month period. FAO provided consultants and field staff.

By the end of March 1997 the disease in Tanzania had been confined to four districts, while in Kenya infection appears to have been restricted to the area to the south and southeast of Nairobi.

Recently EMPRES has been successfully tackling a variety of animal diseases: examples include eradication of contagious bovine pleuropneumonia from Botswana, and containment of a damaging outbreak of African swine fever in Côte d'Ivoire. EMPRES is helping to develop an effective vaccine against Newcastle disease which has devastating effects on poultry in numerous countries of the world. This vaccine will be introduced as part of a package of sustainable animal health and production practices currently being developed for use by small-scale poultry producers.